Unorthodox
by yeti activist
Summary: Scully doesn't understand mulder, even through all these years. An exploration of how Scully views Mulder and their relationship throughout the years of their partnership. Last chapter will end in 2007/2008- right before IWTB. Will be a 5 chapter fic.
1. Chapter 1

2nd posted story! I'm proud of myself hehe.

anyway this is supposed to be a 5 chapter fic that is scully reflecting on herself, mulder, their relationship and/ or such stuff over the span of the years. im not used to writing in the preset , so this was a pretty fun thing to write! it's not gonna be overtly shippy. at least not until the last chapter ( which will be iwtb era.) I kinda half assed the ending but oh well. I still like it.

Please enjoy and I'd very much apreciate some reviews, if y'all could spare the time! :)

* * *

1992

It's only been a week or two since Dana Scully had been assigned to Fox Mulder.

She doesn't know what to think of him. At first thought she finds him to be absolutely absurd- a man stuck in a realm of whimsical thoughts , refusing to see it's irrationality. He's very... Unorthodox. It grates on her. Scully can't understand him and he confuses her to no end. But she does find Mulder quite charming too, which confuses her even more so.

Scully finds comfort in facts. In reality. In everything she knows to be true- in science. It's something sturdy she can hold onto no matter what.

Mulder, on the other hand clings to the unknown. He pushes away science, pushes away the rigid rules of reality she finds her comfort in. He second guesses everything she holds sacred, which she cannot do. As confusing as this is, it is also intriguing.

He is a complete opposite of her, she thinks , standing alone in the metallic entrapment that is the elevator as she presses the button down to the basement. And perhaps, that is the reason she finds him so charming. The elevator starts moving downward with a sudden jerk and she grips the railing as tightly as she can. She looses her train of thought.

It stops in a few moments with another sudden jerk. She paces through the elevator door and into the poorly lit and empty hallway. During her time at the FBI academy of all the places she thought she'd end up, she never expected to be in the basement with the FBI's most unwanted, or so Mulder had put it.

It doesn't take very long to reach his- well now their- office. She gingerly grabs the doorknob and slowly pushes the door open.

To her surprise the office was empty. She had supposed he would have been in here far earlier than she, staring wistfully at the myriad of photos ,which were mostly of supposed 'UFO's', that he had tacked up messily to the wall. Apparently she was wrong.

Scully paces around the other side of the desk, stopping to peer at the mess he has left. A photograph framed in the corner of his desk catches her eye as she scans the room. She knows who the two smiling figures are immediately.

Scully leans down, gently tracing the outline of the photo frame with her pointer finger . The photo is somewhat haunting to her, knowing the fate of the smiling girl to the right of a much younger Mulder. She can't imagine how it feels for her partner to look at day in and day out. Even though she doesn't believe what Mulder thinks happened to her, Scully still finds it eerie.

Glancing upward from his desk, it takes her a moment to realize that Mulder has already entered the room. His lanky form is leaned up against the door.

" Good morning , Scully" He says, putting extra emphasis on her name, as they make eye contact. He says it so casually as if they've know each other much longer than two weeks. She finds it a tad odd. And slightly uncomfortable.

" Morning, agent Mulder." She replies cooly and formally. She gives him a resigned nod. " I was expecting to find you in here before I got in."

" Traffic was a pain in the ass. " He says while pacing around the office, breaking eye contact with her. She almost feels relieved by this.

" Ah."

Mulder digs in a drawer a few feet from her and his desk, seemingly in that little world of his. After a few moments of mulling over a handful of file folders he tosses one towards her. She catches it, but a moment too late as papers slip out onto her lap and the floor.

" I heard about a report from the San Diego field office a few weeks that I found particularly interesting. And I heard on the grape vine something similar had happened yesterday morning."

Scully admittedly begins to daze out as he begins his ramble. She fidgets with the folder in her hands

Mulder continued to drone on about something. It's hard not to daze out listening to his voice ramble on about fantasies and science fiction. He's saying something about mothmen now. Maybe , she's not sure.

" ... So I thought we'd head out there and take a look for ourselves..."

" Excu-"

" So go pack your stuff. "

And he's already left the room.

She remains in his desk , finally bothering to collect the fallen papers and read through the file. She sighed as the first paper she picks up is a tabloid newspaper with the bright headline saying something about ... mothmen.

Yep, mothmen. She was going to investigate mothmen in San Diego. She sighs, throwing the folder on the desk, leaving the remaining papers on the ground.

Scully is mainly irritated , partially amused, and lastly just a tiny , tiny bit curious- not that she'd admit it though.

She just doesn't understand this man one bit. So lost in a fantasy world. She doesn't know what to think of him.


	2. Chapter 2

here we go! takes place at the end of paperclip ( if I recall correctly) after Melissa dies and they're sitting in the empty hospital enjoy and review if you could! :)))

* * *

1995

They both remained there, tightly clutching each other by the empty hospital bed . For a while neither speak. A nurse comes in and tells them quite rudely they need to move out soon because a patient will need that bed ( Scully snaps at her, and Mulder has to calm her down. The nurse leaves quickly after this. ) , but besides for that, they just remain there, together in remorseful silence for what seems to Scully to be an eternity. At least it is a somewhat nice and comforting eternity.

She doesn't want it to end. But it does.

Mulder is the first to break the silence and that eternity. She wishes he hadn't.

" I know this is a bad thing to say but... I'm glad it wasn't you." He whispers softly and almost voicelessly. " I don't know what I'd do if it had been you." He's staring at her. But not really. He's staring, dazing out looking just a bit to the left of her.

She's a bit taken back by his comment immediately. Scully knows he means well, but that is just something you don't say, especially this soon after a thing like this. She's not sure how to respond to him. Leave it to Mulder to say the difficult things , she thinks.

So she responds with the only thing she can think of, even though it is a crude reply.

" I wish it was. " She responds curtly and quickly.

" I know you do." He was even quieter with his reply. Mulder didn't meet her gaze either.

" This wasn't her time. It-it wasn't meant for her. It was meant for me, Mulder. I told you that already. It should be me laying on a slab, not her. Not Melissa. Me. She wasn't the one that bullet was meant for." Scully bites her lip, almost drawing blood , before continuing, a hard edge beginning to come into her voice. " It's all my fault because I got wrapped up in all this bullshit and now my sister is dead. If I hadn't been trying to protect this damn quest of yours she'd be here. "

This all spurts out all of a sudden before Scully can censor it and she regrets what she's said immediately as she catches the pain that flashes through her partners eyes. Such a nice way to thank a friend for comforting you in a time of loss- by gruelingly insulting and blaming them. This time she draws blood biting her lip.

" I'm sorry." He murmurs , unable to make eye contact once again. He moves away from her.

" No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean.. " Scully stammers in reply.

" It's fine. I know you're upset. "

There's another long silence, but unlike the first , this one is uncomfortable and filled with tension. She hates this silence and wants it to end as soon as it begins.

Again, Mulder is the first to break the silence.

"I think I should go."

Scully opens her mouth to say something but she can't find the right thing to say. So she lets him go.

Mulder reaches over to her hesitantly to give her hand a quick and soft squeeze. He then gets up slowly, keenly watching to see how she responds.

She weakly and warily smiles briefly at him and he does so back, then proceeds quietly through the door. Scully watches him pass the door and leave her sight.

She doesn't follow.

Not yet. Not quite yet. She isn't ready to go through that door. Frankly she feels like she might never be able to.

Scully's too sad, too hurt, too confused to move yet. She feels almost paralyzed. And glued down to the spot. She doesn't care how many nurses they want to send in to drag her away, she can't do yet. She can't leave . Mulder's now left her alone in her head. There's too much to contemplate and too much to mourn right now.

And the thing she continues to contemplate is:

Was it worth it?

Is this all worth it?

Is Mulder worth all of this?

Is his cause worth it?

It's absolutely horrible of her but she wonders if there's merit to her cruel comment to Mulder. Scratch that. She knows there is. Scully still regrets what she's said to Mulder but she cannot deny it's truth.

Her involvement with Mulder has cost her so, so dearly. Her abduction and now her sister. And despite that Scully knows she'll continue to follow him. And that doesn't make sense.

Why is that? Why does she continue to make sacrifices for a cause not her own? Why does she put it all on the line for an apparently insane man looking for little green men?

Scully's grown to care about Mulder quite fondly but even so, the sacrifices she makes are so so extreme. It's so strange. So odd.

Scully doesn't think she's ready to answer those questions yet. There's an answer she knows but can't bring herself to admit or say.

She can't. Not yet.

Not quite yet. There's still too much else to think and contemplate. She's so confused and hurt right now and she can't think of Mulder and all that surrounds their unorthodox relationship.

Scully breathes in and out deeply. She can't figure out the answer to that question yet but she knows the answer to another one and she's ready to admit this one.

She stands up over the hospital bed, feeling tears run down her face. She's almost ready to walk out that door.

" Bye, Melissa. "

She bites the inside of her cheek and wipes her tears off on the cuff of her pantsuit. And Scully leaves the room.


	3. Chapter 3

third chapter! set after FTF. before or around 'the beginning ' this chapter ended up shorter than the last two.

also I lied in the first chapter. I said this wasn't gonna be shippy but it's turning out a lot more shippy that I meant LMAO!

Anyway please enjoy!

* * *

1998

Scully unlocks her apartment door and walks in, lost in her thoughts. Her mind is like a dark foggy forest and she is stranded within it.

She paces into her living room.

Her mind is everywhere at once, but there's one place it keeps going back to:

'You made me a whole person.'

His words hung in her mind like a nat stuck in a sticky spider web, struggling to get out with no avail. She can't stop thinking about it and it's speaker. Mulder.

Scully sighs before flopping down onto her couch. The apartment is dark besides for the room she's in , which is being lit up by nothing but a lamp to the left of her. She grasps a pillow and plays with the fraying edges before putting in beneath her head.

Mulder's still on her mind.

He always finds a way to keep her. He always finds a way to make her stay. Her weakness is him. She can't make herself fail him. She's too loyal and bound to him to do so, no matter how much she's wanted to. There's something that keeps them glued tight together and both she and Mulder know it.

And it's that she's fallen for him, in a way. she'll admit this now. Not out loud, though. Only to herself. It's less to do with romance , and more to do with an intimate emotional connection. A connection born out of absolute opposition. An enigmatic connection that has took her by surprise for six years. It's an intense connection

Sometimes she wonders if Mulder feels it to, or if it's one sided. From what he's said, she imagines he does. You don't say 'you made me a whole person' and try to kiss them if you don't feel for them in some way. But then again who knows ? With Mulder anything is possible.

There's something she does know though.

She, Dana Scully, is in love with Fox Mulder. She knows this. She doesn't know why, or when she fell for him, but she loves him. As frustrating as he is, as illogical his brain works, despite every reason why logically she shouldn't love him- she does.

Scully doesn't want these feelings. It just complicates everything even more.

An ironic unorthodox affair falsely masquerading as nothing more than professional working partners. That's what they are.

It's confusing.

Confusing because she doesn't know what this relationship is. Is it just a work partnership? Is it friendship? Or is it romantic or perhaps they're stuck somewhere oddly in between?

What are they? Why are they this? And what will they be?

Scully's just so confused with it all. Thinking about it almost gives her a headache.

All she knows know is that she's too tired. Too tired for this. Too tired to think about Fox Mulder and whatever it is that's between the two of them. She pushes herself off of the couch and stretches in the middle of the room briefly. Then she heads to bed.

Scully wraps herself in blankets tightly, watching the moonlight filter through the window near the bed as she grows drowsy. Scully finally closes her eyes, the pale light turning a fuzzy black.

She goes to sleep and the last thing on her mind is him.


	4. Chapter 4

4th chapter! : ]

I completly bullshitted that scully likes horror movies tbh. Pay no heed to that. it was just the first thing that popped into my head.

please enjoy and thanks for reading ! : )

2000

" You put way too much butter on this popcorn." Scully protests, scrutinizing the bowl with a disapproving pushes the bowl of popcorn back into Mulder's lap when he slides it into hers. He grunts at her and pushes it back towards her.

" A little butter won't kill you, Scully."

" That is not 'a little butter' and it's not healthy."

He scoffs and mimics her quietly. " 'That's not a little butter.'"

" Okay, Mulder , now you're just being childish. " Scully says sternly, glaring at her partner. He facetiously narrows his eyes at her in reply. She then looks at the bowl, breaks down and eats the popcorn. Mulder grins at her and she flashes him one of her looks. Scully tries to hide the fact despite the fact it is covered in a horrible, ungodly amount of butter she's enjoying it but she can tell by Mulder's withstanding smirk he already knows.

" Remind me again what we're watching?" She says before he can whip out a snarky comment.

" Some horror movie I rented at Blockbuster. I thought you liked horror movies" Says Mulder.

" I do."

" Good." He says quietly " That's why I rented it. " Scully can't help but break out a small smile at his almost childlike earnest.

The movie starts to play and they both become quiet. Mulder leans over her to steal a piece of popcorn, but does not return to his original position. He instead stays slightly leaned up against Scully.

She notices that Mulder keeps turning to get a glance at her, as if to make sure it's okay for him to lean against her. She gives him a smile and he then proceeds to watch the TV.

She however continues watches him as the movie plays.

Scully watches him endearingly and adoringly, not minding the movie that's playing in the background.

That feeling of adoration slowly shifts to solemnity however as she begins to think about Mulder more.

He has been alone for so long, and by his choice. He has pushed away the faintest idea of a normal life, isolated himself and it's left him with nothing. Well- nothing but her and the X files. If not for her he would be sitting here in his apartment lost in his head- UFO's and related phenomena consuming him even more than they already do. And they already consume him now more than they should.

But then again, how can she judge him? She's been doing the same thing. And she would be- If not for him. She pushed everyone away from herself, and likewise buried herself in her carrier so she couldn't get close to anyone.

What she's done is more or less the same thing.

They've both been alone for a very long time.

But for once, neither is alone. No, they have each other now. The skeptic and the believer.

They've bonded in a way like she's never bonded with another before. It's a strange bond that she's spend countless , restless hours contemplating and she's reached the conclusion they're just something that's not meant to make sense.

She loves him unconditionally and he loves her the same. But they aren't a conventional couple. Frankly, one could argue they aren't even a true couple . There's little romance and sex involved. That's not what it's about.

It's about an intimate emotional bond. An incredible bond. A bond between two people absolutely nothing alike. But perhaps they are not complete opposites after all. Maybe they aren't as different than she's always assumed. Maybe they're more similar that she realized. The both of them are very... Unorthodox.

And after all they've both ended up together by taking the same path.

" Scully, you've been staring at me for the past five minutes. Do I have something between my teeth?" Scully is jolted out of her head as Mulder begins to talk.

Scully looks away as Mulder moves to meet her lingering gaze, her cheeks growing pink.

" No, I uh, I was just thinking."

" About? "

" You." She replies collectedly despite the fact her face has gone bright red. " And me. And us."

" Us?" He says.

" Us." She responds , looking away from him.

He gives a small uncertain nod, his mouth hangs just slightly open. " What about us?"

" Just uh-" Scully shifts in her seat, and glances at her partner. " That I'm glad that we have each other."

Mulder's quiet for a while before he speaks again and when he does it's so soft it's barely audible.

" Me too."


End file.
